Cleveland’s lead poisoning legacy

(1.30.14)As reported by Dorr G. Dearborn, Ph.D., M.D. in a recent article, “The effects of elevated lead levels are a decreased IQ, a decreased attention span, poor school performance and aggressive behavior. This is a very negative legacy for our children and our schools. A positive legacy is the great decrease in these numbers over the past 10 years due to the leadership of our city and county health departments as supported by local foundations, led by a large grant from the St. Luke’s Foundation to the Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (now part of the Healthy Homes Advisory Council of Greater Cleveland). While over 36,000 children were lead-poisoned from 1997 to 2007, there has been a greater than 50 percent reduction in lead-poisoned children since 2007.”